Test 1 Ethics

Question 1

The idea that ethical statements are really statements of personal opinion, nothing more. (Right for me, wrong for you)

Answer 1

Subjectivism

Question 2

These are weaknesses of which concept?
- It can’t deal with ethical disagreement because when people disagree ethically, they are saying “I believe X and you should too!”
- People generally do not include the italicized part above when talking about opinion. E.g. No matter how much you like McDonald’s, you probably don’t believe every one should like it as much as you. However, you might feel you are right about your position on the death penalty and people should agree with it.
- If ethics is just about opinions, than no one was ever wrong about racism, slavery, sexism, genocide, or pretty much anything!
- People actually change their minds about their ethical standpoints, or at least question them…this is incompatible with subjectivism since, by its nature, assumes people are infallible about their ethics (opinions).

Answer 2

Subjectivism

Question 3

The ethical theory that says right and wrong are relative to one’s culture.

Answer 3

Cultural Relativism

Question 4

Which thesis is this:
Ethical standards differ from culture to culture; what may be right in one may be wrong in another. E.g. Equal rights for women, blasphemy, etc.

Answer 4

The Diversity Thesis

Question 5

Which thesis is this:
Therefore, what people ought to do is based on their own culture’s ethical standards. Note that this thesis sidesteps what ethics depends on except for what is commonly understood.

Answer 5

The Dependency Thesis

Question 6

These are the weaknesses of which concept?
- It is difficult to define cultural boundaries within even one geographic domain, such as Canada.
- People generally find their identity in more than one culture or subculture…what then?
- Curiously, ____________ ___________ lacks respect for tolerance. If __________ ___________ were to encourage tolerance everywhere, it would be suggesting an ethical standard that transcends all cultures…breaking its own rule. ;)

Answer 6

Cultural Relativism

Question 7

What is ethics?

Answer 7

Less about the way things are, and more about how they ought to be.

Question 8

When describing a phenomena, people use ______________ statements, striving for a non-biased neutral account.

Answer 8

Descriptive

Question 9

When speaking ethically, people tend to use ______________ statements, which describe how things should be, according to norms. E. g. “You should take out the garbage”.

Answer 9

Normative

Question 10

“Ought” implies “____”. E. g. Nick has no arms or no legs so it is ridiculous to say he is morally required to take out the trash. However, we can find another normative statement such as “Nick should help his younger sister with her homework”.

Answer 10

Can

Question 11

“If our actions are determined, then are we responsible for them?”. List the four determinants.

Answer 11

Genetic, psychological, theological, and causal.

Question 12

What concept is this? “If i do not have the choice to make a particular decision, it would be difficult to hold me responsible for it”.

Answer 12

Determinism

Question 13

What type of responsibility is this? –> It is simply determining whos actions caused what result.

Answer 13

Causal responsibility

Question 14

What type of responsibility is this? –> It is seen as follows: does the person in question deserve the moral praise or condemnation for the action in question?

Answer 14

Moral responsibility

Question 15

Which concept is this? “One could only earn the praise or condemnation if one chose (free will) the action that would elicit the response”.

Answer 15

Responsibility

Question 16

Results that happen deprived of the element of choice may be seen as ______, but not really ________.

Answer 16

tragic and im/moral

Question 17

Ethics requires _____ _____, and being morally responsible for something requires that one uses one’s ______ ______ to choose the action for which they are morally responsible.

Answer 17

Free will

Question 18

What do we call desires about our desires?

Answer 18

Second-order desires

Question 19

A desire for anything other than a desire.

Answer 19

First-order desires

Question 20

What concepts are these definitions associated with?

________: concerns itself with (surprise!) the study of value and evaluation.
________: The process of determining how good or bad something is.
________: What makes that thing good!

Answer 20

The Value Theory, Evaluation and Value

Question 21

Which evaluation method is this: “A big sundae of your favorite ice cream is better than a small cone of it”.

Answer 21

Quantitative method of evaluation

Question 22

Which evaluation method is this: “If I like cake a lot better than toast, then one small piece of cake is better than five pieces of toast”.

Answer 22

Qualitative method of evaluation

Question 23

What concept is this: “An argument assumes the truth of its conclusion in its premises as opposed to evidence or reasons people can agree upon apart from the conclusion.”

Answer 23

Begging the Question

Question 24

Which concept is this?:
“There is no such thing as an action that is inherently good or evil; an action’s “goodness or evilness” is determined by the context under which it took place.”

Answer 24

The Moral Object

Question 25

Which RRQ concept is this?:
- It is necessary to put aside myths and presuppositions regarding the moral object and understand what it is empirically, with as little bias as possible.
- E.g. The Napalm example in class.

Answer 25

What?

Question 26

What RRQ concept is this?
- Refers to the motivating reason or intention of the person performing the action.
- Motive gives essential meaning to the human action since we are the only creatures who act out of thought.
- E.g. The money-lending scenario from class

Answer 26

Why?

Question 27

What RRQ concept is this?
- Refers to the method in which the action manifests.
- It is not simply “If you do it nicely, it is good” or “If you lack style, it is bad.”
- Usually about issues of integrity.
- E.g. The sledgehammer mercy killing example from class.

Answer 27

How?

Question 28

What RRQ concept is this?
- To do ethics abstractly and ignore the who that you are dealing with is a tragedy, since every person is utterly unique.
- This does not mean that what Lola wants is good for Lola. It means taking into account the identities of all involved.
- “The right person for the job.”
- E.g. The boyfriend cheating example from class.

Answer 28

Who?

Question 29

What RRQ concept is this?
- Odd to think of geography as making a moral difference, but it can. An action in a particular location may be offensive where it otherwise mightn’t be.
- E.g. Loading a gun at a firing range versus a crowded bus.

Answer 29

Where?

Question 30

What RRQ concept is this?
- The time factor often affects what you are dealing with, influences the chain of events and limits the alternatives available.
- The timing matters, whether it is when you break bad news or when you decide to terminate life.

Answer 30

When?

Question 31

What RRQ concept is this?
- This question does not demand some sort of omniscience; rather, based especially on the answer to “who?”, one should attempt to determine what are the most likely consequences to the action being considered.

Answer 31

What are the foreseeable effects?

Question 32

What RRQ concept is this?
- This question is necessary to prevent someone from stubbornly “force-fitting” the answers from the other questions to make a desired course of action seem reasonable.
- Note that for this question and the previous one, a well-practiced imagination is vital.

Answer 32

What are the viable alternatives?

Question 33

What concept is associated to this definition: The idea that we act based on our own self interest.

Answer 33

Egoism

Question 34

What concept is associated to this definition: The theory that people are essentially self-centered, acting on what is good for them. It is a descriptive theory.

Answer 34

Psychological Egoism

Question 35

What concept is associated to this definition: The theory that people should act on their own best interests. It is a normative theory.

Answer 35

Ethical Egoism

Question 36

Which Western philosopher was one of the greatest proponents for the Psychological Egoism theory?

Answer 36

Thomas Hobbes (He believed that maximizing your self-interest is a core aspect of what being a human being is. It is our nature.
Hobbes also believed it was rational to pursue our self-interest…it’s just that people don’t always pursue the most rational strategy in advancing their own good = a form of egoism called contractarianism.

Question 37

What sub category of psychological egoism is this?:

Suggests you pursue all your immediate interests as they pop up. E.g. Keep promises until it no longer serves your needs, take whatever is needed at the time, etc.

Answer 37

Naive Egoism

Question 38

What sub category of psychological egoism is this?:

Suggests being willing to frustrate short-term interests for the sake of long-term ones. E.g. While inconvenient, keeping a minor promise may have a bigger payoff later when someone more important decides you’re trustworthy.

Answer 38

Enlightened Egoism

Question 39

_________ believed that the pre-societal state was ruled by _____ _________, but that society is formed by people thinking along the lines of ________ __________.

Answer 39

Hobbes, Naive egoism, Psychological egoism

Question 40

What sub category of ethical egoism is this?:
I ought to look out for my own interests. Help is given to others only when it also helps myself.

Answer 40

Individual Ethical Egoism

Question 41

What sub category of ethical egoism is this?:
Everybody ought to look out for their own interests. Help is given to others when it coincides with helping oneself.

Answer 41

Universal Ethical Egoism

Question 42

In ________________, “good” is determined by results; the better the consequences, the more responsibility you have to bring them about.

Answer 42

Consequentialism

Question 43

________________ is the form of consequentialism that evaluates consequences based on how much happiness and suffering they contain.

Answer 43

Utilitarianism

Question 44

_________ ___________ is most closely associated with Utilitarianism and he referred to this as ______________ which is his belief that the good humans pursue is happiness, and the absence of pain.

Answer 44

Jeremy Bentham and the Principle of Utility

Question 45

What concept is this?: Bentham married Hedonism (pursuit of pleasure or in this case happiness) with egalitarianism. This means that everyone’s happiness is valued equally. So when a decision is made, the happiness and suffering of all involved is taken into account.

Answer 45

Maximizing Utility

Question 46

What are the determinants according to Bentham that decides an action’s potential utility?

Answer 46

Intensity (level of pleasure), Duration (the time length of pain or pleasure), Certainty (the likelyhood of something happening), Propinquity (immediacy of the pleasure rather than the action), Fecundity (likelyhood of an action to follow with more pain or pleasure), Purity/Impurity (Basically the opposite of fecundity, it measures how likely the action will be followed up by the opposite feeling) and Extent (how wide of an effect the actions has. 1 versus more).

Question 47

What are the two types of pleasures John Stuart Mill mentions in his book “Utilitarianism” ?

Answer 47

Higher pleasures and lower pleasures

Question 48

What concept is this?:

Involves directly increasing the good through one’s actions, in each situation. Done in the following way:

• Assess the options
• How much good or utility is produced by each option?
• Remember Bentham’s Hedonistic Calculus.
• Choose the right option.

Answer 48

Act Utilitarianism (bending rules to achieve the best consequences).

Question 49

What concept is this?

Involves indirectly increasing the good by following rules of behaviour. This is accomplished in the following steps:

1) Ascertain your general rule of conduct
2) Ask what would happen if everyone followed this rule
3) Ask about the opposite rule
4) Choose the best alternative that would have a net increase in utility over the long run.

Answer 49

Rule Utilitarianism

Question 50

What concept defines itself by going above and beyond one’s ethical duties?

Answer 50

Supererogatory

Question 51

What utilitarianism challenge is this?

An adherence to utilitarian values requires a detachment from your sense of self and a diminishment of identity.

Answer 51

A threat to integrity

Question 52

Challenge:

Can we really know what produces the most good? Because knowing what will actually happen is impossible, _____________ may yield some weird results: Being praised for actions that would seem wrong/blamed for actions that seem right
Counter-argument: Differentiate between expected and actual consequences (Rule ___________).

Answer 52

Utilitarianism 2x